Description
In this quirky, character-driven debut novel seven hotel employees puzzle out the events of a botched assassination attempt - the next read for fans of Fredrik Backman (Anxious People) and Matt Haig (The Midnight Library).
Finalist for the 2022 Crime Writers of Canada Award for Best First Novel
Seven ordinary hotel employees. Catering, Reservations, Management. Seven moles, waiting for years for a single code word, a trigger that will send them into action in a violent event that will end their dull lives as they know them.
The event has failed: the action was a disaster. Each employee is being debriefed by an agent of an invisible organization. These are the transcripts of those interviews. What they reveal is not just the intricate mechanism of an international assassination, but the yearnings inside each of its pawns, the desperation and secret rage that might cause any one of us to sign up, sell out, and take a plunge into darkness.
Both sinister and absurd, Seven Down is a puzzle to be solved, a comedy, and a panorama of life. At once sociological, satirical, and scary, it paints portraits of the mundane human failings behind geopolitical machinations.
A RARE MACHINES BOOK
About the Author
David Whitton is the author of The Reverse Cowgirl, a story collection. His short fiction has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including Darwin's Bastards, Best Canadian Stories, and The Journey Prize Stories, and he is a graduate of the University of Guelph's Creative Writing MFA program. David lives in Toronto.
Reviews
Whitton pens a debut that is both comedic and introspective, skewering the attempts of an organization trying to find out what went wrong with the group of people it tried so hard to manipulate. This one is perfect for fans of quirky novels like those of Fredrik Backman and Jennifer Egan. * Booklist *
In Seven Down David Whitton shines klieg lights on the human condition with all its yearning, existential anxiety, and ridiculousness. With just the right amount of whodunnit and whydunit, this loopy and exhilaratingly tangential spy novel keeps the reader's synapses firing on all cylinders. * Zsuzsi Gartner, author of Better Living through Plastic Explosives and The Beguiling *
Wildly original, economically written, profound, and very "now", Seven Down is a breath of fresh, vibrant literary air. * Kid Ferrous Reviews *
Incredibly original! The writing is flawless, effortlessly weaving the events of the day together through the voices of seven sleeper agents, each with a distinct and unique personality creating a rich in-depth story you cannot possibly put down! * Partridge Pages *
A witty, sharply written and concise story. * Boyd Blog *
Hilarious and haunting... combines the paranoid atmosphere of Don DeLillo with the bureaucratic procedure and spy tradecraft of John le Carre, while evoking both laughter and horror. * Winnipeg Free Press *
Highly amusing, and a much-needed antidote to the writings of too many spy novelists. * Ottawa Review of Books *
Awards
Short-listed for Crime Writers of Canada Award for Best First Novel 2022 (Canada).
Book Information
ISBN 9781459748576
Author David Whitton
Format Paperback
Page Count 200
Imprint Dundurn Group Ltd
Publisher Dundurn Group Ltd
Weight(grams) 241g
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 140mm * 25mm
Finalist for the 2022 Crime Writers of Canada Award for Best First Novel
Seven ordinary hotel employees. Catering, Reservations, Management. Seven moles, waiting for years for a single code word, a trigger that will send them into action in a violent event that will end their dull lives as they know them.
The event has failed: the action was a disaster. Each employee is being debriefed by an agent of an invisible organization. These are the transcripts of those interviews. What they reveal is not just the intricate mechanism of an international assassination, but the yearnings inside each of its pawns, the desperation and secret rage that might cause any one of us to sign up, sell out, and take a plunge into darkness.
Both sinister and absurd, Seven Down is a puzzle to be solved, a comedy, and a panorama of life. At once sociological, satirical, and scary, it paints portraits of the mundane human failings behind geopolitical machinations.
A RARE MACHINES BOOK
About the Author
David Whitton is the author of The Reverse Cowgirl, a story collection. His short fiction has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including Darwin's Bastards, Best Canadian Stories, and The Journey Prize Stories, and he is a graduate of the University of Guelph's Creative Writing MFA program. David lives in Toronto.
Reviews
Whitton pens a debut that is both comedic and introspective, skewering the attempts of an organization trying to find out what went wrong with the group of people it tried so hard to manipulate. This one is perfect for fans of quirky novels like those of Fredrik Backman and Jennifer Egan. * Booklist *
In Seven Down David Whitton shines klieg lights on the human condition with all its yearning, existential anxiety, and ridiculousness. With just the right amount of whodunnit and whydunit, this loopy and exhilaratingly tangential spy novel keeps the reader's synapses firing on all cylinders. * Zsuzsi Gartner, author of Better Living through Plastic Explosives and The Beguiling *
Wildly original, economically written, profound, and very "now", Seven Down is a breath of fresh, vibrant literary air. * Kid Ferrous Reviews *
Incredibly original! The writing is flawless, effortlessly weaving the events of the day together through the voices of seven sleeper agents, each with a distinct and unique personality creating a rich in-depth story you cannot possibly put down! * Partridge Pages *
A witty, sharply written and concise story. * Boyd Blog *
Hilarious and haunting... combines the paranoid atmosphere of Don DeLillo with the bureaucratic procedure and spy tradecraft of John le Carre, while evoking both laughter and horror. * Winnipeg Free Press *
Highly amusing, and a much-needed antidote to the writings of too many spy novelists. * Ottawa Review of Books *
Awards
Short-listed for Crime Writers of Canada Award for Best First Novel 2022 (Canada).
Book Information
ISBN 9781459748576
Author David Whitton
Format Paperback
Page Count 200
Imprint Dundurn Group Ltd
Publisher Dundurn Group Ltd
Weight(grams) 241g
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 140mm * 25mm
